One Tiny Little Trick That Can Make You Richer? Yes Please!

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For freelancers, deciding how much to charge for work can be a big hurdle. Certain assignments may pay less but take a short amount of time, so they end up feeling worthwhile, while a much bigger endeavor with a bigger paycheck might end up taking over your life! Granted, you can only charge what the market will bear (as much as you can convince someone to pay you), but we gave you some tips for pinpointing the value of your work getting that back in your paycheck.

However, our friends over at the Freelancers Union have some insight into a simple trick you can do to get the most money from your clients without them completely balking at your asking price. It’s all about cutting the zeroes. Instead of quoting them at $3000, try $3305. Pricing psychology shows that no matter how hard you’ve worked at arriving at your carefully calculated project rate, the first thing a client sees is the number of zeroes. Avoid that initial sticker shock, and hint at the brilliant algorithm you may (or may not) have used to help you determine your rate, by adjusting your numbers to be very specific.

“I’ve seen it time and time again: clients don’t like zeros. It wakes up their never-far-away suspicion that freelancers pad their quotes and are trying to milk them dry. It’s a law of non-even price numbers that marketers have employed for centuries.

If you’re pricing your services right — based on true value — you will not be lying to your clients. This is not about misrepresenting yourself. It’s about making the proposal and bid process smoother.”